Synopsis:
Satonaka Yuika is a girl who doesn't laugh from the heart. She came to live in Tokyo to continue her studies in Chiba University. There she meets a group of unsuccessful actors who made her laugh, so she goes to watch their play. Shimokita Sundays is the name of their group. They are really unpopular and very few people watch their performances. Yuika was touched by their performance and decided to go for an audition.

Review:
So far I've watched the first 4 episodes of this dorama, and I'm really looking forward to see how the story progress because it's quite different from other doramas I've watched. The story is about Yuika (Ueto Aya) joining this theatre troupe called Shimokita Sundays, which reminds me of Hirono's dream in Tokyo Friends.

What make this special is probably the story background, which is about a theatre troup. These people are very enthusiastic about their dream, even though they are suffering from lack of income because of their passion in this field. It's also interesting to see how Yuika changes from a dull university science student into a talented performer after joining Shimokita Sundays. It's probably in the blood of Yuika that she is born to be a excellent actress.

As you can see from the picture above, Ueto Aya has a very weird haircut in this dorama. So far, this dorama received very poor response in Japan, maybe you should take a look at its viewership:

Ep 01: 11.4 %
Ep 02: 8.1 %
Ep 03: 6.3 %
Ep 04: 7.5 %
Ep 05: 6.9 %

This result is VERY bad when you compared with Ueto Aya's previous dorama, Attention Please, which achieved average viewership of around 16 %. I'm not sure if this is because Japanese can't accept Ueto Aya looking ugly (than usual) with weird hairstyle or they generally despises the theatre troup culture.

If you're an Ueto Aya fan, if you like art, plays, poor people, Shakespeare etc. then you really should give this dorama a try! Out of 4 summer doramas that I'm currently chasing (My Boss, My Hero, Suppli, Taiyou no Uta, Shimokita Sundays), this dorama probably has the highest antipication value. I give this dorama 4/5.

as a big fan of aya-chan, I watched the first episode and stopped. its kinda slow and not really that interesting. the ratings are really low...I guess its because the storyline wasn't interesting enough.

No, they are not expensive, normally between $11 and $17 for a season, about 10+ episodes, here are the links to the 2 sites, I have an order coming from the top one any day.
http://fansub.guckies.com/ This site is cheaper and the subs are better, but there is no DVD case, they come in a sleeve, you get the order rather quickly.

http://www.coolwin-video.com/movie/movie.php?pcid=JDR&ptype=D&sub=E
Little more expensive, but it comes in a nice DVD case, subs sometimes are not so great, shipping is more, comes from Malaysia, probably less for you. What's great is the selection here, they have almost everything, the Aya series they do have now, plus a good cheap movie section.

Both have their pros and cons, either one is fine though, I would order from the 1st place if you want high quality subs.

^ uhm... you do know that sites like the first one you linked to is the reason why some fansub groups (e.g. SARS) hesitate to put their stuff up on trackers like d-addicts, right? since it says "fansub" i take it it indeed is fansubs and that they're making money off other peoples' hard work (unless they've subbed them all themselves, which i greatly doubt, seeing the quite big sortiment they have). that's why you see all these "not for sale, auction or ebay" and "if you've payed money for this, you've been had" texts in a lot of dramas. since, you know, fansubs are for and by fans, for free. paying for them won't give anything to the people making the dramas, if that's what you want to do.
the second site is... i dunno if it is better, lol. i guess it is. most probably they're all bootlegs from Malaysia. i've got one of these myself, Koinu no Waltz, and yeah, they have nice (somewhat) cases and packaging, but they're not the real deal (at least the video quality on my KnW copy sucks). although the subs usually aren't up to par either, sometimes it's the best you can get (unless you can find it fansubbed by some nice group). dunno how much money (if any at all, which is what i suspect in many cases) the people that actually make the dramas gets from that, i'm not really sure about that.

if you wanna support the people in Japan, buy some DVDs from Japan, or overseas versions like from Korea or Hong Kong or Taiwan, that you can find on a reliable site like YA or CDJapan or HMV or whatever, those are the real deal. if there are no english subs... yeah, that kinda sucks, but you might find some softsubs that you can use if you rip the vids to your comp, though i guess that's a lot of work... overseas versions with english subs is my suggestion. like i've got the Hong Kong version of the Taiyou no Uta movie, and it's good.

and sorry if i sound harsh...

edit: more on topic, i have this series on my to-watch list. i really liked Celeb to Binbou Tarou, so comedy with Aya works well for me.

Last edited by mangomalte on Sep 16, 2009 8:38 am; edited 1 time in total

^ ummm ignorance is bliss, I didn't want to tell you, but I kinda suspected this was the case when I saw you comment the JDramas were so cheap .... as mangomalte says, the best way to support the industry is buy from legit sites like YesAsia and CDJapan. Or download from d-addicts for free, which isn't directly supporting the industry, but (arguably) will help establish a market for the dramas in western countries similar to how it has for anime. Anyway that's my view, regardless downloading or buying fansubs is illegal, though I can't say enough bad things about the people selling other peoples works (both the hard work and risk the fansubbers are taking and JDrama industry itself).

Yeah, back on the main topic, Shimokita Sundays is one of the few remaining Aya series I haven't seen yet. As far as I can tell though only the first half of the series is subbed so far on d-addicts. I do really want to see it though.

Actually, I used to order quite a bit of stuff from YA, they stopped taking checks and I don't have a credit card, so had to look for other sources then, another reason I had to stop was because of the region code, I know Europe has the same code as Japan, not the case here. I'd really like to be able to order again from YA, bummed out when they stopped taking checks, must have ordered 100+ CDs from them, if there was a site that would accept my payment, then I would order from them.

EDIT- It's about 2 hours later, I really did not mean to make others mad, sometimes I just don't realize things, I know that top site did fan subs, didn't think the other did. What got me curious about their dramas was visiting this other site, used to be good, but is dying out. They had some good, short reviews on dramas and I became interested in ordering some, at the bottom of the page they list retailers, checked some of them out and one of them looked good, prices were cheap and the service was so fast and they take checks. Here in the U.S. there are fewer options it seems to find places to buy these kind of things, if I found a place that would accept a check or money order I would look there, hard to find them. Here is the list of retailers I was talking about, it's at the bottom of the page.
http://www.j-fan.com/drama/drama.cgi?action=viewrev&season=Summer_2006&show=kekkon_dekinai_otoko

Sorry didn't see your edit till now. I'm not mad at you, I just know from my own personal experience it is quite disappointing and don't want others to go through the same thing. For a long time I used to buy CDs from retail shops in Aus, which I used to think was the genuine article, then found out later on that they were all bootleg copies and I wasn't supporting the artists at all. Majorly gutted . I still think you are better of downloading for free rather than giving money to those sites, but your situation is different to mine in that downloading ( because of your internet problems ) may not be a good solution for you, especially if you want to get the fansubs which you can't get from the legit sites.

btw I think YA actually does allow payment cheques and money orders now, or you can pay via paypal, so that might be a safe option for you for buying.

Well, actually it was the other way around for YA, they took checks/MOs and stopped, don't know why, they have an American branch where I sent it to. But going to YA, checking out their prices it makes someone not want to order from them, regardless of what has been said, there is no way the artist are getting as big cut from a sale of a DVD, I think YA is ripping people off way too much.
For instance, I got Nodame Contabile for $17, YA wants $242 for it, 1,400% more! Trick 2 I also spent $17 for the series, it's $209 on YA. I'm for actors/singers getting money, but there's no way most of that money is going to them, YA is just stealing from customers, maybe that's one reason CD/DVD sales are so far down in Japan, sure the economy is bad, but it's not like people have no money, but to have to pay $60 for movies, $30 for CDs, consumers are just getting fed up. The biggest chain store here for DVDs, CDs, TVs, etc. is Best Buy, I can walk into one and but a new DVD from Japan and a legit company and have to pay $12-$15, but in Japan the same DVD costs $60, these companies are now learning the hard way that they need to change. I figure I have 80 series, times by $17= $1,360 I have spent, a good amount, but let's say the average cost on YA is $150 for a series, though it's probably higher, so for the same series I would have spent $12,000!!!! Plus this does not include shipping and they are also region 2 and I have no way of paying them, believe me when I say I'm all for helping the rtists out, but there are limits, I'm always open to hearing alternatives, just don't think there are that many when it comes to this genre. I'm not trying to sound mad, but as a consumer we all have a say, think a lot of us are saying we don't want to get ripped off so the people that don't deserve it can line their pockets with our money. And I also thought that second place sold legit DVDs, they are just so professional and give great service, the series always come in really sharp cases, etc. Oh well, enough of this, sorry for boring you, hey if anyone can find a place that takes checks/MOs, has the DVDs region 1 and offer fairly good prices, by all means I would give them a try, phew.

PS- Went to YA, still says they take checks, but I've learned the hard way a couple of times, made an order, went thru the whole checkput process and right at the very end it says they no longer accepts checks! Grrr, but in the how do I pay section it does say a check is an option.

You're correct, region 2 DVDs are exceedingly expensive and overpriced, personally I've only bought a few series ( GTO, 1 Litre of Tears, Nodame Cantabile and Tokyo Friends ) and probably spent about the same amount as you. They haven't come with subtitles either All the rest of the dramas I've downloaded, which doesn't benefit the industry at all.
However, the point I'm trying to make is not whether to buy legitimate versions or not, but that you are paying for something that has the same value as something that has been downloaded illegaly. ie none. It's not a matter of comparing prices to the legit version, because there is no real comparison there.
That's my view anyway, and yeah there are flaws in it, I can also see the points you're making in your previous posts. As far as I see it there is no perfect solution for this (unless your a millionaire and can speak fluent Japanese ) Hopefully one day these series will get properly licenced by local companies and become readily available and reasonably priced. till then

(maybe these last few posts should be moved into theiri own thread as we've seemingly hijacked the Shimokita Sundays thread ... sorry)

I watched Shimokita Sundays as well. I find it interesting and funny in the quite middle of the series. So I think you should not give up the drama first. If really not your type of shows than just take it as watching Aya Ueto lor....